This invention generally relates to methods and systems for processing chewing gum, and more specifically, to a method and system where a gum composition is extruded into a rope, and the rope is subsequently cut into small pieces, which are then wrapped.
Various large scale, mass production systems have been developed to form individually wrapped chewing gum pieces. With one conventional system, the chewing gum ingredients are mixed together in a kettle or similar device and cooked or baked to form loaves of chewing gum material. The loaves are then fed to an extruder, which extrudes a multitude of elongated ropes. These ropes are usually powdered to improve their workability, and cut into segments. The rope segments are then carried to a work station adjacent a wrapping machine and reconnected together to form a new continuous rope. The new rope is fed through a pre-sizer, which changes the vertical cross-sectional shape of the rope from circular to square, and then fed to the wrapping machine, which cuts the rope into small pieces and individually wraps each piece. While this procedure has proven to be very efficient and productive, it is believed that it can be improved upon in several respects.
For instance, the prior art system is relatively labor intensive in that it requires one worker to transport the rope segments from a first work area or station adjacent the extruder to a second work area or station adjacent the wrapping machine, and a second worker is normally required at the latter work station to reconnect the rope segments. This relatively large number of workers increases the cost of operating the system and the cost of producing the wrapped chewing gum pieces.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of this invention is to improve methods and systems for processing chewing gum.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a system for processing chewing gum with a multitude of gum wrapping machines and a multitude of gum extruders and to match the extruders with the wrapping machines on a one-to-one basis.
A further object of this invention is to cut a chewing gum composition into a multitude of segments and to feed those segments, via a single conveyor system, to a multitude of extruders, each of which extrudes one continuous rope of gum.
Still another object of the present invention is to circulate segments of chewing gum around a closed path past a group of gum extruders, to feed segments of gum from that closed path to the extruders, and to recirculate around the closed path any segments of gum not fed to an extruder.
These and other objectives are attained with a system for processing a chewing gum composition, and comprising gum segment forming means to form the gum into a multitude of segments; and conveyor means to receive the gum segments from the gum segment forming means and to move those gum segments along a path. The system further comprises a plurality of extruders located along the conveyor means to receive the gum segments therefrom and to extrude those gum segments into ropes of gum; and a plurality of wrapping means to receive those ropes of gum, to cut each rope into a multitude of pieces and to wrap these pieces.
Further benefits and advantages of the invention will become apparent from a consideration of the following detailed description given with reference to the accompanying drawings, which specify and show preferred embodiments of the invention.